The present invention relates to the art of spirally winding cigar wrappers around a cigar body or bunch to provide the desired outer appearance. For many years this procedure has been done by rotating the cigar body and feeding a wrapper at a wrapping angle onto the body or bunch. As the body is rotated, it pulls the wrapper into the desired spiral configuration. In this process, only a single cigar can be wrapped at a given time and each cigar must be manually loaded into the rotating mechanism preparatory to wrapping. Consequently, the wrapping procedure used for many years has had a high labor cost component. Such labor costs continue to rise at the same time that the price commanded by a majority of cigars is relatively low. In this business environment, there has been a tremendous impetus for mechanizing all aspects of cigar making, including the wrapping of a wrapper around the cigar body. Automatic machine concepts for performing the wrapping procedure are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,692. In accordance with these concepts, a number of cigar bodies are rotated as they are moved along a given path. In this path, a conveyor means delivers cigar wrappers to the rotating and translating cigar body. When the wrapper converges with the body, it engages the body and the wrapping process continues until the cigar is completed. At the end of the wrapping process, the flag end of the wrapper is formed onto a generally tapered end of the body to provide the mouth end of the resulting cigar. In this prior U.S. patent two separate wrappers formed into a chevron-shape are wrapped onto a dual cigar body. After wrapping, the cigar body is cut at the midsection to produce two finished cigars, each of which has a fire end and a mouth end. By mechanizing the procedure for wrapping and wrapping two wrappers onto a double cigar body, relatively high production rates can be obtained. Thus, this concept provides an automatic procedure for wrapping cigars which is low in labor cost and has high production rates. Since such equipment involves a tremendous amount of development work and capital expenditures, these machines must operate with a minimum of down time and rapidly. This goal is being realized in automatic wrapping machines of the general type shown in this prior patent. In accordance with the illustrated concept of FIGS. 37-39 of this prior patent, it has been suggested that the cigar bodies can be carried in individual nests which are formed from a plurality of mutually parallel rods that capture and engage the cigar body. As the nest is moved along a given path, the rods of the nest are driven to rotate the cigar body carried by the moving nest. A wrapper is brought into engagement with the cigar body where the tuck end is affixed to the surface of the body so that continued rotation of the body by the parallel rods wraps the wrappers onto the outer surface for the purpose previously described.
To start this wrapping process, it has been suggested that an arrangement on the wrapper conveyor be used to lift the truck end of both wrappers into engagement with the cigar body. This is illustrated in prior application Ser. No. 973,037, filed Dec. 26, 1978. This lifting device called a tuck lifter or tuck lifting means, forces the tuck ends of the wrappers into engagement with the rotating body as the apex of the chevron-shaped dual wrapper blank is directly between the two lower rods of the nest. This apex often includes a small deposit of glue so that the wrappers are positively secured to the body to initiate the wrapping operation. This procedure has been successful and is now being developed for commercial application.
Since the speed of the machine must be increased to a level which makes the machine economically feasible, various control arrangements on the wrapping machine must be done rapidly. Often movements are accomplished by a vacuum system, a pressurized air system or a cam mechanism. In the prior automatic wrapping machine, one critical aspect was the movement of the tuck lifter up into a position contacting the wrapper and the body rotated in the nest. This had to be done at the exact instance when the body and wrapper blank converged. This requirement necessitated relatively close port construction and mechanical adjustments for the machine developed to accomplish the automatic wrapping of a chevron-shaped wrapper blank onto the dual cigar body.